Marketing Matters is a blog that tells marketing stories from an industry, academic and student's perspective. We confront and debate today’s business trends. Views expressed by the blogs do not necessarily reflect the views of the University of Sydney Business School.

Tuesday, 28 August 2012

McDonald's Sponsorship Case Study

Another Olympic Games has come and gone. And while Australian swimming may not have done as well as usual and are looking to review their performance, one organization that performed well in this period was McDonald's in Australia.

Obviously, we're not privy to the detailed financial results of McDonald's or their ROI on their significant investment as a major sponsor of the Olympics in London. But what is impressive is the way that McDonald's in Australia leveraged their Olympic association.

Love them or hate them and no doubt some people will argue that McDonald's should not be associated with sporting events - but that is not the point here. The point is that the way that McDonald's has executed its Olympic sponsorship provides a great case study for how other firms need to implement sponsorship strategies.

Sponsorships have become a common part of a communications platform, particularly for larger firms. It is estimated that around 1% of marketing budgets are allocated to sponsorships, as they have unique advantages over other forms of promotion, particularly in the area of building a positive brand association.

Gone are the days where the sponsorship arrangement would simply be the payment of the funds and then adopt a 'hope for the best' approach. These days, most sponsoring firms would recognize that they have to work hard at leveraging and highlighting their sponsorship connection.

That's why McDonald's approach in Australia provides an excellent case study. They introduced a range of short-term menu items, with each tied to a previous Olympics, such as the Sydney Stack and the Beijing Chicken, along with a Coca-Cola Olympic glass give-away sales promotion.
This overall campaign clearly connected McDonald's and the Olympics, gave them additional products to sell, added variety for their regular customers, and gave the opportunity for different promotional messages and a value-adding sales promotion.

Overall, McDonald's has demonstrated a far more effective way of leveraging a sponsorship, rather than simply running ads saying that they are 'proud sponsors’. What are your thought on the issues surrounding the Olympic sponsorships? Should a company such as McDonald’s be a sponsor of the Olympics?

No comments:

Post a Comment

About the Bloggers

Alyce Brierley is a student in the Master of Marketing Program at the University of Sydney Business School. With a degree in Creative Industries (QUT), she has recently returned to Australia after working for the last six years in Paris as Copywriter and an English Language Consultant. Alyce is a culture, travel, food, and wine enthusiast with a love for learning languages. She is currently working in partnership with a tech start-up in the wine industry as a wine blogger.

Bowie Chen is from China and a current student in the Master of Marketing program at the University of Sydney Business School. Bowie has several years experience working in FMCG marketing, media (esp. TV station), and consulting firms.

Hazel Chen has 8 years work experience in the Beverage Manufacturing Industry with the role as Technical Leader and Manager, covering Logistics, Marketing, Laboratory and Prototyping function. As a part of Master of Marketing program, she has the confidence to consolidate all the experience with Marketing study to understand overall market to a great extent.